Poet Sonia Sanchez reiterates that “we are a village” during her speech at the Community Activism Luncheon last weekend at Bennett College.

“Activism is woven into the fabric of Bennett College,” said Julianne Malveaux, president of the college.

The event was a demonstration of how Bennett College celebrates, educates and transforms women into 21st century leaders and global thinkers.

Activist and poet Sonia Sanchez, president and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS C. Virginia Fields and the Rev. Jesse Jackson were some of the participants of the Community Activist Forum at the event.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the announcement of a commemoration of Bennett College alumnus Sandra Neely Smith, a former student government association president who was killed in the 1979 attack when members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party fired on a protest march.

Malveaux said Bennett College would delve into other ways of honoring Smith.

“We are continuing to look into her work and her life,” said Malveaux. “We are likely to begin an essay competition in her honor and to also perhaps look at the possibility of commissioning a biography on her.”

There was a video shown that displayed actual footage of the massacre taken by local news outlets.

Malveaux said Bennett College stresses activism to induce change.

“Bennett women are activist women. We have a 94 percent voting participation rate on campus and activism is how we allow America to be America,” Malveaux said.

The fact that HIV/AIDS still has a grip on the Black community is an area where activism needs to be injected according to Malveaux.

The deadly virus and its impact on Black women especially were heavily discussed during the event.

“One of the things that we realized is that for young women part of their activism work is going to have to be around HIV and AIDS because African-American women are too most frequently diagnosed with AIDS,” said Malveaux.

Fields said the NBLCA is forming a partnership with Bennett College to do more around outreach and education and the larger community on HIV/AIDS and its impact upon Black women.

“The data speaks for itself. On a national level African-American women represent over 60 percent of all of the new cases of HIV. In the county were Bennett College is located based on the statistics the numbers are also high,” said Fields.

--Philadelphia Tribune